NHRC: Continued Criminalisation of Petty Offences is Tagging Poverty a Crime

By Michael Olugbode

Executive Secretary of National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu says there is urgent need to decriminalise petty offences in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, insisting that sending someone to jail for violation of such offences is akin to criminalising poverty.

He equally said the major key to decongestion of custodian centres (prisons) “is when other means of punishment other than jail term is given for violation of petty offences.”

Speaking to participants at the Project Review Meeting on Decriminalisation of Petty Offences within the African Region held in Abuja on Thursday and yesterday, Ojukwu who was represented by the Head, Monitoring Department of the NHRC, Okay Agu, explained petty offences could be found in laws that are aimed at controlling public nuisance on public roads, public places as well as laws criminalising some informal commercial activities like hawking and vending.

He further explained that in Nigeria, petty offences fall within the broad category of minor offences, misdemeanors, simple offences and summary regulatory offences such as urinating in public and washing clothes in public.

He said against the background that laws on petty offences seem to mainly target the socio-economic lives and activities of the poor and marginalised population in society, the significance of this project on human rights needs not be overemphasised.

He said: “Remarkably, the principles encourage member states (African countries) to consider the use of non-custodial measures as an alternative to imprisonment.

“It is appalling to note that petty offenders, most of who are awaiting trial for offences such as being a rogue and vagabond, being idle or disorderly, loitering, begging, hawking, failure to pay debt and being a nuisance among others, constitute a significant number of persons in detention and thus contribute to the growing number of inmates in custody across the country.”

Ojukwu, while disclosing that the Decriminalisation of Petty Offences Project was being implemented in Nigeria with the support from the Network of Human Rights Institutions in Africa (NANHRI), said the initiative was simultaneously implemented in Uganda and Sierra Leone.

He revealed that the Project Review Meeting sought to take stock of the implementation so far in the three African countries, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone.

Also speaking at the meeting, Benigno Ochieng of NANHRI based in Nairobi, Kenya, said the occasion was to review the steps taken to implement the National Action Plan as regarding the decriminalisation of petty offences in the three African countries and across Africa.

He said it was aimed at analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation and proffer way forward.

Ochieng said implementation of decriminalisation of petty offences was facing great challenges on the continent but that would however not debar the promotion of the process.